Japan have an exam that tests kanji proficiency. Considering many people have the goal to read Japanese in their favorite manga/light novels/visual novels etc, I thought it would be useful for people to have an idea of where they sit as far as their grade level of Japanese. Here is how many kanji each test covers and what grade kids learn them in.
【級】：【レベル】
10級：小学校1年生修了程度：80字
9級：小学校2年生修了程度：240字
8級：小学校3年生修了程度：440字
7級：小学校4年生修了程度：642字
6級：小学校5年生修了程度：835字
5級：小学校6年生修了程度：1026字
4級：中学校在学程度：1339字
3級：中学校卒業程度：1623字
準2級：高校在学程度：1951字
2級：高校卒業・大学・一般程度：2136字
準1級：大学・一般程度：約3000字
1級：大学・一般程度：約6000字
Then consider the number you learn for the JLPT by level:
2141 kanji for N1
1140 kanji for N2
660 kanji for N3
300 kanji for N4
120 kanji for N5
After passing N5, assuming perfect kanji comprehension, you are barely 1st grade reading level. Definitely less because you don’t know all the vocabulary they do. That will be true for every grade level in fact.
For the N4, assuming perfect knowledge, you aren’t even 3rd grade level.
For N3 you just barely hit 4th grade level
N2 you have finally hit 6th grade level, the last year of elementary school in Japan. That’s assuming perfect knowledge.
Most people here are trying to read manga, which largely published around the group of kanji and words known by middle school students. For light novels it’s high school and college.
I would suggest that a lot of people struggling with these materials and getting frustrated stop trying to read these things and seek out books and manga published for elementary age. You can even find books catered for specific grade levels. They are much better IMHO as a daily book to try reading vs a favorite manga 5-6 grade levels above your own. You can find interesting material like Sherlock Holmes and other classics adapted for 4th or 5th grade reading level.
All that being said, what works for you and is helping you learn is always the best method. Self study is a creative process and everyone’s journey is going to be different. However, I think it’s worth at least considering what your own grade level is in a brutally honest way when choosing material to engage with. Especially when your level is still n4 and N3, a third or fourth grade reading level.
Good luck in your study guys and good luck to everyone taking the test today.
2 comments
You’re talking about the Kanji Kentei (漢字検定), and I suspect that many people here have at least heard of it.
You make some interesting points, but on the whole, I feel like learners nowadays obsess a bit *too* much with finding the perfect material for their level.
I strongly believe that as long as something is not *drastically* above one’s level to the point that you’re having to look up every other word in a sentence, they can gain something (a lot, actually) from reading it — and that because of this, the best reading material at the end of the day is whatever you’re interested in.
(And I don’t know about you, but when I was in 4th grade, I was reading stuff like the Lord of the Rings. I never really considered what “level” Tolkien was writing for, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t elementary school kids.)
*edited to add –* I also think it’s a bit misleading to talk about the Kanji Kentei without pointing out that *very, very* few native speakers are able to pass the higher levels. Only *74* people passed 1級 iin 2023, and that’s of the 819 people brave enough to take it (72 more registered but then chickened out, apparently). [[source](https://www.kanken.or.jp/kanken/investigation/result/2023_1.html)]
Manga with furigana are intended for elementary schoolers. And light novels range a lot in difficulty, but they definitely go as low as middle school reading level (GJ部) comes to mind.
That said you can’t actually directly compare a learner’s reading level with a Japanese child’s reading level. For one thing, as you pointed out the learner will almost certainly have weaker vocabulary knowledge unless they spent years learning through audio resources before starting to learn to read. For another an adult or older teenager with a sophisticated reading ability in one language will have transferrable reading skills separate from language skills that an elementary or middle schooler is less likely to have.
Anyway, I actually think looking for children’s books is only going to make the problem worse. Yes, you won’t have as much of a kanji knowledge problem, but elementary schoolers still know way more vocabulary than most learners. Also children’s material might use a lot of slang and casual expressions that learners don’t tend to learn for a while (One Piece comes to mind for me). And if you have to keep looking things up it doesn’t matter whether they’re written in kanji or not. You might as well read what interests you.
Ofc do pick something on the easier side to start with, but that isn’t necessarily something intended for elementary schoolers. I think GJ部 is easier to read than One Piece, but One Piece has full furigana and probably intended for elementary schoolers, whereas GJ部 doesn’t have full furigana, and is probably intended for middle schoolers. (Or maybe older elementary schoolers, not 100% sure.)